The Experience
by raveneye7g
Summary: This story is written following the story line of the game. It was written following how the writer had play, experience, feel, think and perhaps 'accidently talk' on particular scene. this story contains spoiler so please read it t your own risk. The writer felt sorry of the outdated-ness for just being introduced to this game lately while Far Cry 3 had already been released


**Far Cry 2 – The Experience**

Character: Marty Alencar

Location: Leboa-seko and later Bowa-seko, Africa

Mission: To kill 'the Jackal', the bastard that armed both UFLL and APR

***CONTAINS SPOILER. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK***

_*This story comes from Far Cry 2 games from Ubisoft. It was created from what the writer has experienced and chose upon completing the game. The additional things and thoughts came personally from the writer when playing on particular missions. Any plot difference of the piece written from the game was affected from what was understood, experienced or remembered by the writer. There may be something non-existence information from the game was added or some existed information from the game were taken away or change __to makes the plot more interesting and simpler to be read. Please excuse the writer for any grammatical errors or any unsuitable uses of words as the writer is not an English-speaker. Any wrong information of names and positions are also hoped to be excused as the writer play the game only once before writing this piece to get the freshest of ideas. __Thank you for reading this story.*_

**Leboa-Seko**

I just arrive here, in Africa as a mercenary, an assassin. I got a new task, to kill 'The Jackal'. He is a sadistic, brutal yet brave and intelligent mercenary. He is here, at Africa, and he is selling weapons for both the UFLL (United Front of Liberation and Labour) and the APR (Alliance of Popular Resistance). Both of the factions are having a war between them to see who can lead the state.

I arrived at noon at the airstrip and was taken to a hotel in Pala by a cab. I can see the place is destroying, is dying. I feel pity with the county, with the citizen, innocent citizen. The sight of them chasing planes to run away from their country, the sight of homes being burned down, the sight of soldiers being armed and aware make me feel that I NEEDED to kill the Jackal even more. He is the source of this turbulence, this sadistic looks. I will find him, and I will pay for all the innocent citizens, with his life.

I just arrived to the hotel safely, yet I feel strange. Why? This feeling… it is killing me… this… is painful. What is it…? Then, I feel my head knocking the head rest to my front and I cannot remember what happens next.

Ah, I am gaining my consciousness. The light is blinding but I can see better after I turn my sight around. Suddenly, my eyes focused on a figure far to my right. Wait, who is that? What is he doing with my briefcase? Why is he messing around with the important document of the Jackal I got in there? Wait… is he…? No mistake! He *is* the Jackal himself! I tried to move but I cannot. Gosh, I wish I can put a bullet between his eyes right now, but dammit, I cannot move! I look at him intensely as he is walking towards me. Ah, why he is coming here…? Gezz, I CAN'T MOVE! The Jackal then starts to talk about many things. What is he talking about? Breaks a man's will? Who? A monster? And then I see him pointing his gun under his neck. Why is he doing that? Well, he better pull the trigger or I will do it for him… The Jackal continues to talk. All I could catch from his talking is that he mentions something about malaria. Wait… what? I am having malaria? No, this is not making any sense. I just arrived here, but now *I* am the one who is having malaria? This can't be happening… I look at him in disbelief of what he said but later I saw that he pull out his machete and directed it to me, and he is still talking. Wait, what is he going to do with that thing? He seems to be serious to stab me in the face. Wait… NO! *Bam*, he stabs the machete right into a wall exactly on my head. Ugh… he teased me alright… Right on my head. Later I heard him talk about a book, a philosophy that he holds until this day, but why? I cannot understand any word of what he is trying to say. And then he throws his gun besides my bed and left my room. I wanted to get up and take the gun and shoot him and finish my job, but all I did was pass out one more time…

Just after I open my eyes and sunlight enters my eyes, I hear a big explosion from outside. What is going on out there? I immediately understand that I cannot stay here because I hear firing sounds from outside. I took the machete and the gun that the Jackal left behind and went out of the room and head downstairs. From there, I can see many people shoot blindly to anybody they see and I am not an exception. I crouch slowly towards the door, hiding behind some walls from the people who are firing. I try to stand but then I heard a loud gunshot from my back and I look down just to see my left hand holding my stomach with blood oozing down. I drop my gun and dropped on my knees with both of my hands now clutching my wound. I begin to lose my consciousness and I can feel that my right cheek slams the earth. Ah, it's painful… it is… pain… ful…..

I wake up in an unusual place, a place I don't recognize. Where am I? I look around the room and I see someone leaning on the door. Who is that? Is it the Jackal? No wait, he is wearing something weird on his head. He approaches me and introduced himself as Quarbani Singh, a mercenary. Then I realize that he is the one who saved me from the battleground right back in Pala after the Jackal went away. Later he said that a journalist named Reuben Oluwa-something wants to see me. Yes, I am going to see him as he knows something about the Jackal.

I went to Mike's Bar and I see the journalist is waiting for me. Okay, he seems like a nice, ordinary guy. Not a mercenary type. He introduced himself as Reuben Oluwagembi, He talks about the Jackal and the interview recoding he had with him. But the problem is, the recording was scattered over Leboa and Bowa-seko. Man, mind your own things properly next time. Oh, but the good news is, he asked me to go back to Pala. Pala had cooled down after the attack and went back to become a cease-fire zone. He said that the priest of the church there have some medicine to soothe down my malaria. Great! I needed them!

I am on my way to Pala, the road is bad, really bad. Reaching Pala, there is really a ceasefire here at the place. Good. I cannot shoot all these people especially when seeing at the number of them. I will be dead before I even know it. Okay, the church is in the middle of the town. I see the priest, he is telling me about taking the civilians over here and protect them all, here, at the church in Pala. He also gave me some medicine for my malaria. Thanks a lot, father. Now I can continue to track down the Jackal and kill him, for sure!

These 4 days seems so long. I had been working with both the UFLL and the APR. What have I done? All I want is to find the Jackal and end the war, but why am I helping both of the faction to heat up the war even more? What have I done…? I feel depressed when I think that my hands were stained with blood of people that I do not know. Although I tried to comfort myself by telling that it is all for self defense, I cannot accept the fact that I kill hundreds of people just to find this one person. I heard that he is having cancer, but I want to be the one to kill him, before his cancer does.

I went to see Prosper Kouassi to tell him I will not be doing another mission for him. Surprisingly, I accept the latest mission. Why? He promised me that this is going to be the last. He asked me to kill Leon Gakumba. He convinces me that with Gakumba's death, there will be peace in whole reign of Leboa-seko as the APR will rule the whole place. Well, it seems promising enough that I do not think long before accepting the mission. Maybe I am just too tired…

I went to Goka Falls with my intention of ending this war but end up I kill more people. This is REALLY has to end and it is going to be NOW. I cleared the place and went into the house. I saw Leon. He tried to reason with me about Kouassi. No, I won't hear him. He *is* the reason of this war, I convince myself. Without thinking or even let him talk to me, I pull the trigger and kill him instantly. Done, my job here is done, I lean on a wall sighed out of relief. Next, all I need to do is to find the Jackal all by myself. No more mission from Prosper Kouassi or anybody. Nobody else needed to die because of me but the Jackal himself.

Then, I started to walk out from the place. Suddenly, I saw many soldiers coming to my direction and start shooting. Wait, they are wearing APR's symbol on their clothes? And more, they are attacking me! I am forced to hide. What is the meaning of this? Why the APR people are trying to kill me? I think I did a great job of getting rid of Leon. What is happening really? Did they… Did… They….. Wa… Wait a second… I WAS FRAMED! Prosper Kouassi wanted the captain of UFLL to die so he can rule this region all by himself, his rule! And he wanted to take the credit of killing Leon by executing me? Damn Kouassi, damn him! I should have listened to Leon before I killed him, damn Kouassi! I swore hardly but then I think I needed to get away from here. Alive, if I can. I shoot at them, bomb them, snipe them. I cannot do this any longer, this is getting ridiculous as they keep coming. I needed to run away, badly, before getting killed…

I managed to run downhill and I suddenly got a call from the journalist, Reuben Oluwagembi. He needed to see me ASAP at the lumber, near Pala and Mike's Bar. I rushed there, knowing there is something very important. Maybe he knows the current location of the Jackal? Great! I can make the Jackal pay for this betrayal of Kouassi.

I arrived at the lumber. It is so quiet, seems like no one is around. But I needed to be careful. The fear of getting ambushed at Goka Falls still haunts me. I went into a building in the lumber and saw Reuben. He informed me that he knew I was sent to kill Leon Gakumba and things started to turn ugly. APR is searching for me and they are heading to both Mike's Bar and the church simultaneously. They are going to kill all my fellow mercenaries that I saved or met in four days before AND the priest together with civilians under his care at the church in Pala. He said that I cannot save them all but I got just enough time to go to either one of the places. The choice is depressing me and I am desperate. It is killing me as I need to choose to save between a few mercenary friends that saved me during my missions or some civilians and the priest that gave me malaria pills. Which one should I save? Damn it, DAMN IT!

After a while, I made a decision. This decision, for me, will affect the future. Although both of the priest and fellow mercenaries had saved me many times, I needed my search of the Jackal to be much easier. So I need people with skills and are useful so that they can help me to turn things right back at its place. Plus, it is nearer from here too. It is a hard choice, cruel to the other, but I had to choose one. And I am sorry, father…

I burst open the door and run like hell to Mike's Bar. Nearing the bar, I realized how stupid I am for not taking a car, moreover, stupid enough for not heading to the church in Pala. Why did I not realize earlier that my mercenary friends may defend themselves? For God's sake, they are mercenaries! God dammit! I decrease my speed and stop to think. What should I do now? Head back to Pala or continue to go to Mike's Bar? While I am considering on whether to go south or north, I hear a gunshot. Automatically my legs run towards the sound and found that Mike's Bar is swarmed by soldiers wearing the APR's logo. I made a smart move by sniping them. My gun jammed several times but I managed to get rid of all the soldiers that are attacking the bar.

Things went quiet. I carefully head to the bar and open the door. Inside, I saw all my mercenary friends. Quarbani! How I missed to see you alive. Oh, he is angry. He asked me where I was when they are being attacked but I can sense relief from him. He wanted me to help moving the refrigerator behind the door and help them defend the place as there are more of APR soldiers coming. Just as he finished talking, there are blasts of fire coming from outside. The APR has arrived! I shoot like crazy towards the soldiers that nearing the windows where I am guarding, trying my best to defend this place and my friends. From outside, the fire is heavy. They are coming from all sides, the road, the mountain, the lake. I have finished my second round of bullets and needed to reload. I yelled for Quarbani to back me up, but the sound for firing are too deafening. I turned to ask Quarbani again but all I see is all my fellow mercenaries lied down, unmoved. Did… did they were shot? Are… are they still alive…? I crouch to Quarbani slowly only to find him having blood all over his body. I look around and only found out that Paul Ferenc, Frank Bilders and Flora Guillen all has fallen, unmoved and bleeding. This… this is nightmare… I cannot take this anymore. This is madness, this is ridiculous… I… I… Arghh! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE! I sprint outside and I fire blindly towards the APR soldier. I managed to kill several of them but the worst part is they managed to 'kill' me, or so I thought. The last thing I felt was a shot to my chest and a painful sensation on my flank when I fall…

As I open my eyes, I can see a dead, heavily bled man in front of me. I can see clearly that he is placed under more dead bodies. Even worse, I am considered dead too. Okay, maybe not *that* bad. I am being taken with other dead people on a moving truck, God knows to where… The road is rough, I know it because I fell down from the truck. They just keep moving, unknowingly leaving me behind, half alive, mostly dead. I just realize that this is a desert because of the wind blowing the sand all over the place. A heavy sandstorm is raging this place. Well, I consider myself lucky because I am alive, I guess. But the bad news is, I do not know where I should go. My mind is hazy, as hazy as my sight. I just could not think clearly of where to go. I surrender by choosing to follow my legs as they walk everywhere that I have no idea where to. The steps are getting heavier and the sandstorms too. My throat is getting drier, dry as the desert. I just want to curl up and die, but my legs keep moving. Finally, after couching violently, I fell down, unconscious…

I wake up, again, hearing the sound of sandstorm. However, I realize that I am in a house. But, what house? Where? Must be near to the desert but who brought me here? I look around and guess who did I see? The Jackal! WHY? Why every time I see him I am unarmed and can barely move? He must have an enormous luck going on his side. I choose stay stationery and wait to see what is he going to do. He just sit in one corner and look at me. Then he stands up and walks towards me. I flinched. He asked me to stop squirming as he holds out his right hand and reaches on something under my abdomen and with the left hand he hold my chest firmly. In a sudden, he snapped something out of my body and a sensation of definite pain came all over me, mostly on my flank. I screamed my lungs out but hey, I actually feel better. Why? Because in his hand I can see a piece of shrapnel. Big one. He threw that thing away and starts talking. I heard him blurry but I understand that he is talking about the tension of war is increasing and he talks about what would happen to children and women of the war. I notice something from his expression and the way he talk. It seems like he is genuinely care about the civilians. Well, he might as well play with my emotions.

Then, he also said that the people that aid the war are like a virus, they come, and they take everything and go to spread more disease. He is talking about quarantine the patient and I immediately understand that he means of the APR and the UFLL. He might be right. He might be right all along. The UFLL and the APR are the ones who torn the country apart. They *are* the virus, but so are you, Jackal. If is not because of you, the country might be in a better shape than this, dammit! And then both of us hear the sound of vehicles pulling up in front of the house. The Jackal asked me to stay here and before he flees from the window, he asked me to defend myself. A person I do not recognize at first came inside just to see me lying down. Oh, I remember, he is from the UFLL. What was his name again? Is he coming here to kill me? Well, I got a lot more things to do, but if I am meant to die here, I think it is okay too. This place is ugly, and I am in pain, real pain. The person walks towards me and instead of putting a bullet in my head, he offered me a chance to redeem myself. He needed me to assassinate Prosper Kouassi at a troop rally and after that he wanted me to escape to the south, to Bowa-seko. Fine, I will do that even if you do not ask. He throws a water can towards me and left with his troop. Later, I drink from the water can and try to gain my energy to move around. I started my journey up north, out of the desert and head to the troop where Kouassi is.

I arrived with minor injuries after some battle with the APR soldier. As I am nearing Kouassi's troop, I can hear him giving some motivational speech about being an African and defending the land from foreigners. Foreigners like me, Kouassi? Keep talking because you will be declared a dead meat in a minute. I slowly crouch behind a big boulder on a small hill in front of the troop. I scope him down with my sniper rifle and I found him on a roof of a bus, still giving speech. I am in a good distance of not being spotted. Slowly, with no wind to give me extra work, I targeted on his head and the next second, Kouassi fell down with his head exploded, thanks to my skill of sniping.

Slowly, I crouch behind. I pray for not being spotted because there are hundreds of APR soldiers around Kouassi's body. Within seconds I could become another dead meat too if I am not careful. Slowly… Slowly… I tip toe away from my spot. After I think a good distance from them, I sprint like crazy and run away from there. I encountered several vehicles on my way to south but I managed to get rid of them. I took the first vehicle and I speed towards the desert where I fell from the truck. Upon arrival at the border of Bowa-Leboa Seka, I look back to Leboa-seko. Little that I know that will be the last time I will see and walk on Leboa-seko's land. Now I am heading to Bowa-seko with new missions awaiting but the objective still the same; to kill the Jackal that I believe is the root of all chaos in this region.

**Bowa-Seko**

After arriving to Bowa-seko, I was made to work with a woman called Nasreen Davar. We are going to make a false-flag operation in Port Selao just to reignite the conflict. This operation will start a war in Bowa-seko. I myself question the motive of helping the Lieutenant of UFLL of why should I help to bring a war in this new place, but in my mind only have my grudge towards the Jackal, everything was seen right although deep inside my heart, I know it is not.

Later after several days in Bowa-seko, I went to see Addi Mbantuwe of UFLL. There, he needed me to go deliver a piece of paper to Oliver Tambossa, a new leader of APR. In return, he said that Tambossa should give a briefcase full of diamonds to be delivered to him. The paper and the diamonds are for a peace pact between the UFLL and the APR for a total ceasefire. This is it! I now can see a light of peace in this place, the only one thing that I dreadfully wanted to see besides of having the Jackal's head blown off. I happily agreed to help Mbantuwe. When I was just about to leave the building, I see Nasreen Davar by the door. She said that I should bring the diamond case to the airstrip where I and my new fellow mercenaries could escape Africa. I thought that her request was a little odd. Here is where my I ask myself: to help my fellow mercenaries to escape or to help a peace arrangement between the two factions happen so there will be a total ceasefire. Well, not a hard decision, I choose the peace pact. I leave her in the building and head to Dogon Village to proceed with the deal. On my way, I still cannot help thinking of what Nasreen had suggested.

After a long journey and fights along the way, I finally arrived at Oliver Tambossa's place and I immediately sensed something very odd. Something has gone wrong because all the guards and soldiers of APR that supposed to guard the village are all dead! I felt something must be much worse and I hurriedly went to see Tambossa. I enter his house only to find that he has already been assassinated! Who… Who did this? Judging from what the killer has done, he must be a great mercenary because he took Oliver's life TOGETHER with his men's. I put my right hand on my forehead while looking at the body. Why, this is bad, very bad… What should I do now? The people in UFLL may not be able to accept this. I guess, this is the time I myself run away from this horrible place. Forget about Africa, forget about the UFLL and the APR, forget about the civilians and mostly, forget about the Jackal. I begin to consider Nasreen's request earlier, to take the diamonds and run away with all my fellow mercenaries. Now, I have changed my mind…

As I reach for the briefcase near the body of Oliver, I have a sudden realization of the way these people were killed. It is the same with the dead bodies that I have found in my mission to the south near the desert, moments before I found one of the Jackal's interview recordings. The way this people's necks were slit, their bodies were cut, they are the same! This mass murder was done by the same people, or maybe by the same, single person. Mad person. Just as my hand grabbed the diamond case, someone put his machete on my neck and threaten to cut off my throat if I move. He then pause for a moment and pushed me down to the floor and both of us surprised to see each other. God damn it! One more time I see the Jackal and I am not able to do anything! The Jackal keep his machete and he said that the peace agreement is a joke because he said that this will allow them to do more illegal things in 'peace', without the attention of the whole world. The Jackal said that he is going to stop the war by himself and nobody, NOBODY is going to stop him, including me. He said that he used to think like me, killing all the necessary people to aid for the end of the war but it only worsen it. He had found his way to stop the war and he is going to do it. I listen to his talking without interrupting. For a moment, I thought that he is right. Maybe the war will never end unless the UFLL and the APR disappear. Worse still, according to him, he has become a victim of the war where he was accused of starting it. I started to think back about what he said to me all this time and started to agree with him. As I started to believe him, trust him, he took the diamond case from my hand and knocked me out using his foot. I went unconscious, just as I started to believe him…

This time, I wake up at a place real strange to me. It is like a cell. Wait, it *is* a cell! Nasreen is in the cell next to mine. She told me that they found me at Oliver's and they thought that I killed Oliver and messed up with the peace agreement between UFLL and APR. And now all my new mercenary friends that were waiting for me and the diamonds were being taken into this prison and will be killed one by one including me. I realized that I have become the scapegoat of the Jackal! Damn the Jackal, damn him! You won't gain my trust anymore. You tricked me, you piece of shit! I hear some footsteps coming and they stop in front of Nasreen's cell. She pleaded of not being taken away but she is dragged anyway. I can hear her screaming down the hall. I cannot stay here, I need to go or they will kill me too! I break a cracked wall on Nasreen's side and found a machete and a bottle of malaria pills. The door was opened too. I went through the door and away from the prison. I am safe, for now…

I try to live normally after the incident in the prison. People around me look at me as I am a kind of monster. I can see fear in their eyes. Well I guess I *am* a monster, who knows…? *Ring ring*, someone called me and he is asking for help, urgently. It is Reuben! He is still alive but might not for long. He is at an airstrip and he and his friends might get killed before getting transported. I rushed to the airstrip and saved them. In return of saving his and his friend's lives, Reuben give the most precious information that I was dreadfully wanted to hear; the Jackal is currently waiting for me at the prison where I was being held, and he is there to see me!

I head back to the prison as soon as I can to meet the Jackal. I clutches my hands and tried my best to not to kill him before hearing what he have to say. As I enter the prison, I could see that he is waiting for me in the middle of the prison's hall. As I walking towards him, I have to remind myself many times that I need to hear first what he is going to say. My hands are clutching even tighter now. I stop in front of him. He started to explain to me that most of the civilians have escaped Bowa-seko into the border. They cannot escape if the UFLL and the APR are not completely stopped from following them. He said that the UFLL and the APR will either drag all the civilians back into Bowa-seko or kill them at the border. He insisted that the UFLL and the APR are the real virus and they needed to be stopped. He makes me think back that the UFLL and the APR *are* the real culprit here. They had never stopped from creating troubles after troubles even before my arrival here. Now I can feel my hand loses its grip as I listen to what the Jackal said. However, this does not change my mind from killing the Jackal. He is the one who aided the factions, so he is one of the viruses. He is NEEDED to die too. But somehow, I agree to help him to let the civilians evacuate this place first. Just then I will KILL him! He came up with two works for me. The first one is to execute the new leader of UFLL and APR. This will slow them down from tracking all the civilians. The second is to retrieve a case full of diamonds from an arms dealer in a landing zone, where my fellow mercenaries were supposed to be there before being ambushed by the APR. The dealer is going to escape the country with all the diamonds and the Jackal insists that the diamonds are his, and he want them back to bribe the border guards to let the civilian pass the border. He said that he only trusts me and only I can do these jobs. Okay, I thought about it for a while and because of the civilian, I am willing to hold my hand from pulling the trigger and bury a bullet into his head right now and then. Besides, I owed the civilians as I failed to deliver the diamonds to Tambossa before. I exited the prison and move into the Heart of Darkness, where the missions are located.

There, there are a lot of soldiers but I win a hand because of my position is up on the hill. It is quite easy to get rid of them. I continue my journey to the station where the leaders are planning their way to take back the civilians. I took out my rocket launcher and strike their hut and killed them on the spot. Never mind the guards, they can't even reach me. I tip-toed away and continue to my second mission of the Jackal, to retrieve the diamonds.

I walk south about four kilometers and I arrived there. Have I seen something wrong because all I saw, is my second-best buddy, Andre Hyppolite! What is he doing here? He escaped the prison? But how? Wow, this is such a coincidence! As I start to walk to him, I can see that he looks at me gloomy and said that I should not be here. I stopped, a little surprised. Suddenly I hear a very familiar voice from behind him. It is Quarbani! He is still alive, along with the other three mercenary friends. Oh, and Nasreen too! Oh, how happy for me to see them. Before I start walking towards them, Quarbani said to Andre that I am not a part of the plan but Andre said that there is no need to cause any trouble. Wait, I don't understand, what plan? What trouble? Before I could ask either Quarbani or Andre of what are they talking about, Quarbani raises his rifle and starts to shoot at me. I was surprised and impulsively raise my rifle and give a headshot to him. He dropped, dead! I am shocked of what I have done but even more shocked of what Quarbani did. I give a puzzle look to Andre, hoping to get any answer but he said that he is sorry, and he, too, lift his firearm and shoots at me too. Not just him, Paul Ferenc, Frank Bilders, Flora Guillen and Nasreen Davar, all of them shoot at me. They are really going to kill me! I was left with no choice but to defend myself and counter the attack. The battle was very heavy as they are very skilled mercenaries. However, luck is on my side this time. I managed to survive although it highly cost me my health.

Things cooled down after several minutes later. I hear no other sound than my own breathing. I see no movement but leaves and debris flying around the place. Things went quiet, too quiet in fact. I dropped on my knees and both of my palms are on the grounds with my back arching upwards. I feel so much pain in my chest. I am extremely surprised and so frustrated of what has happened. I sob, not knowing whether the pain comes from the wounds or the heart. I try to digest of what have just happened and try to find any logic from it. I question myself; what happened, why did they do that, what have I done, where is my fault... I could not find any answer. I lift my back and turn my head upwards and face the sky. I sigh.

I look around. And ever so slowly, I try to stand. Argh! I feel so dizzy that I dropped back on my knees. I wheeze. I try to gain my strength and try to fight the dizziness and stand again. After I manage to stand, I start to walk around the place, hoping that I can find someone alive and perhaps I can save him or her. But nope, my hope is depleted. No one is. I understand that they badly needed the diamonds but what I do not understand is why they tried to kill me. Part of me blames myself because I did not successfully bring the diamonds to them after the incident in Dogon Village, before the Jackal knocked me out. Things won't turn out like this if I succeeded. Well, another part of me blames them because they were so selfish. They try to save only themselves. Have they ever thought about all the civilians' safety? I guess not. And guess who always does? That's right, the Jackal. The one that I tried my very best to kill before, but now, I am heading to him, to be under his command, to work *for* him. Every step that I take is getting heavier along the thoughts that I have killed my best buddies and my fellow mercenaries. I thought I was going to puke and pass out but I strengthen myself thinking that I have a whole region and civilians to save. Now I am determine to help the Jackal. No one is going to stop me. I strengthen myself and started to walk towards the Jackal's hut where he said he will be waiting. I am exhausted. I want this to end today. I want to forget everything…

I am arriving at the Jackal's hut. I cannot think much. All I wanted is this thing to end quickly and I will probably quit my life somewhere peaceful later. My thoughts of killing so many friends and foes are too overwhelming. It is killing me inside out. I have already taken the Jackal's request seriously as he is the only one that I can trust right now. I need to make sure that all the civilians will be saved and the Jackal's plans to works out finely. Hey, he was right all the way from the very beginning. He tried his best to bring peace to this place in his own way. He tried to show the world the ugly side of Africa. He *is* the only person that I can trust now. Although I have always despise his way of helping these civilians, but at least he got something for them, the people that are complete stranger to him.

Well, it is funny that the people that I believed so much betrayed me but the one I tried to kill so much from the beginning has become the only person that I can trust right now. This is so funny that with just thinking about that makes me smile wondering how stupid life can be. Well, this is going to end. Let the time bring me to wherever I needed to be. Plus, I can feel that my malaria is killing me inside. The shivering, the twitching and the joint pain have become almost unbearable. I think there is no way I can survive from this malaria. I just have the feeling that this malaria will win over me. Maybe that's the best. Maybe that is necessary…

I arrive at the Jackal's. I open the door of his hut and find that he is already waiting for me. He talks about his final plan of saving all those civilians. He takes the diamond briefcase from my hand. At the very moment, I realized that he can shoot me and kill me instantly and flee with all the diamonds but the funny thing is I do not bother to stay alarm. It is because either I trust him so much or I just do not care if he kills me? Well, he is not. He inserts a gun inside it and put the briefcase on the table besides a car battery. He told me that the UFLL and the APR are still tracking down the civilians and he needed them to be stopped. He told me about the overhang cliff that hanging onto the way that the UFLL and the APR will use. He has planted some dynamites on the cliff and was going to blow them up and shut the road. But the problem is the detonation fuse was not functioning. He needed one of us to go up there and manually short-circuits the dynamite that actually ensures both of the success of this mission and the death of the person who blew the cliff. He also added that another one of us can take the diamond case and bring it to the border guards and bribe them and have the civilians cross the border. This person should finally kill himself after the crossing was done. He said that he could and would do both of the works if he can but the problem is he got not enough time to be at both places. He let me choose which work I am going to do.

I think for a while. Both of the works won't let me live to see the next sunrise. I could die in a blow to the body or a blow to the head. My choice. If we are going to survive somehow, we won't live longer as both of us have terminal case of malaria and cancer. Yes, it is true that he has cancer and he won't live longer than three months, he might be the best to take the job on the cliff. I may be able to recover from this malaria, so it would be a waste if I kill myself from blowing the cliff. But, hey, who am I to take all the credits? He made all the plans and worked on most of them. He should be given the honour to take the diamonds to the guards and let the civilians know that they were saved by him. He can either escape or commit suicide after that, it has become none of my business anymore. I have stopped chasing for his life the moment I was attacked by my fellow mercenaries. Both of us are dying slowly and if I am going to die, I want it to be easy, but with honour. I decided that I am *not* going to be a hero. I look at him and told him I chose the cliff and I will take the car battery along. He looks at me and nod. He makes me understand of where I need to go. He ensures that both of us will die within the hour and his final words was 'Africa will win again', a sentence that I got no chance to understand. He opens the door for me and I walk through it to where I suppose to go, never turning back to say goodbye.

I walk up the hill from the west side of the hut. It was an easy journey. Reaching the top, I saw three boxes of dynamites. I settle the battery on the boxes, cut the detonation cord and plug both end to each side of the battery. All I need to do is to short-circuit the cord and the explosion will do the rest of the work. I pause and close my eyes. I sigh heavily and smile. This is finally going to end… I take a good look around here. This place is beautiful and the view is amazing. If not because of the conflict of this place, I might have settled myself down peacefully somewhere here. But now I am going to be a part of the history of the civilians. I might never be remembered or even known but I will be in a small part of their story. All of this thanks to the Jackal, he made all of this happen and he is able to change the lives of the civilians to the better ones. Oh… How I wish I could have met the Jackal in a different way, maybe having him as a friend and work together with him until his target is achieved. He knows more truths than any one of us here and he saved me from my daydreams. Hey, it is funny that I don't even know his real name, haha... He was my enemy but he saved me more than anybody else ever did to me. I look back at the cords in both of my hands. I smile. I am ready this time. Well, this is for him, and this is for Africa. Thank you… Jackal…

The cliff was successfully detonated. At the same time, the briefcase of diamonds was safely handed to the guards. Reuben saw the explosion then he continues to shoots some pictures of the civilians that are rushing to the border. He tried to bring this story to the world but only being rejected and finally set up a personal blog and tell a story about what happened here. The NGO said that underground movement of the country had saved many lives, thanks to some anonymous people that they will never learn their names.

The government insisted that the Jackal died in the conflict but his body was never found.

The UFLL and APR tried to make a pact of peace and create a government but later failed as the violence cannot be stopped.

**- The End -**


End file.
